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    Successful Self-Publishing: How We Do It (And How You Can Too)
    Successful Self-Publishing: How We Do It (And How You Can Too)
    Successful Self-Publishing: How We Do It (And How You Can Too)
    Ebook135 pages2 hours

    Successful Self-Publishing: How We Do It (And How You Can Too)

    By Shoshanna Evers

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    About this ebook

    Successful Self-Publishing: How We Do It (And How You Can Too) is an inspiring anthology of fifteen indie authors' paths to success in publishing, edited by NY Times and USA Today Bestseller Shoshanna Evers. Get ready to take your career to the next level!

    Featuring the following essays by amazingly successful authors:

    How I Make $20,000 or More a Month with my Self-Published Books
    We Can by Gia Blue
    Th e Cover: Make it Professional! by H.P. Mallory
    Th e Business of Publishing, an interview of Shoshanna Evers by author Cara Bristol
    I Did It My Way by Liz Matis
    Respect Your Readers by Katriena Knights
    10, no 11 Successful Self-publishing Tips I Wish I’d Known by Heather Thurmeier
    A Dog, A New Genre, and a Charity by Jennifer Probst
    A Tale of Two Novellas by Skye Warren
    Th e Sky Is Not Falling, or Why 99-Cent Books (Probably) Won’t Take Over the World by Jackie Barbosa
    Why I Love My Crazy Indie Life by Donna McDonald
    How I Sold 17,000 books in Four Months by Debra Holland
    David Kazzie, Before & After by David Kazzie
    Twitter 101: Five Th ings about Twitter Authors Should Know (and Five you Don’t Know) by Valerie Bowman
    Marketing by the eBook by K. Rowe
    Th e World of a Steampunk Indie by Heather Hiestand/Anh Leod .
    Getting Published by Shoshanna Evers
    Plus Helpful Links and Resources!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherShoshanna Evers
    Release dateFeb 7, 2013
    ISBN9780988753716
    Successful Self-Publishing: How We Do It (And How You Can Too)
    Author

    Shoshanna Evers

    New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Shoshanna Evers has written dozens of sexy stories, including The Man Who Holds the Whip (part of the bestselling MAKE ME anthology), Overheated, The Enslaved Trilogy, and The Pulse Trilogy (from Simon & Schuster Pocket Star). Her work has been featured in Best Bondage Erotica 2012 and Best Bondage Erotica 2013, the Penguin/Berkley Heat anthology Agony/Ecstasy, and numerous erotic BDSM novellas including Chastity Belt and Punishing the Art Thief from Ellora’s Cave Publishing. The nonfiction anthology Shoshanna Evers edited and contributed to, How To Write Hot Sex: Tips from Multi-Published Erotic Romance Authors, is a #1 bestseller in the Authorship, Erotica Writing Reference, and Romance Writing categories. Shoshanna is also the cofounder of SelfPubBookCovers.com, the largest selection of one-of-a-kind, premade book covers in the world. Shoshanna is a New York native who now lives with her family and two big dogs in Northern Idaho. She welcomes emails from readers and writers, and loves to interact on Twitter and Facebook. Sexily *Evers* After... ShoshannaEvers.com

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      Book preview

      Successful Self-Publishing - Shoshanna Evers

      Successful Self-Publishing:

      (How We Do It, and How You Can Too)

      Edited by Shoshanna Evers

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright Shoshanna Evers 2012, 2014

      Note: Each author retains copyright on his or her own contribution.

      Successful Self-Publishing: How We Do It, and How You Can Too

      Edited by Shoshanna Evers

      Copyright © 2012 Shoshanna Evers

      Updated edition copyrighted © 2014 Shoshanna Evers

      Please see Copyright Acknowledgements for individual copyright holder information for each article. Every contributor retains copyright to his or her article.

      All Rights Reserved.

      Cover art by Rob Sturtz www.SelfPubBookCovers.com

      Electronic book publication 2012, 2014

      Any resemblance to persons living or dead or places, events or locations is coincidental.

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the ebook store of your choice and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      For a free PDF download of this ebook, visit www.SelfPubBookCovers.com.

      Table of Contents

      Title Page

      Introduction

      How I Make $20,000 or More a Month with my Self-Published Books

      We Can

      The Cover: Make it Professional!

      The Business of Publishing: an interview of Shoshanna Evers by author Cara Bristol

      I Did It My Way

      Respect Your Readers

      10, no 11 Successful Self-publishing Tips I Wish I’d Known

      A Dog, A New Genre, and a Charity

      A Tale of Two Novellas

      The Sky Is Not Falling, or Why 99-Cent Books (Probably) Won’t Take Over the World

      Why I Love My Crazy Indie Life

      How I Sold 17,000 books in Four Months

      David Kazzie, Before & After

      Twitter 101: Five Things about Twitter Authors Should Know (and Five you Don’t Know)

      Marketing by the eBook

      The World of a Steampunk Indie

      Getting Published

      Helpful Links and Resources

      Acknowledgements

      Introduction

      by Shoshanna Evers

      Welcome! Successful Self-Publishing: How We Do It (And How You Can Too) is all of the advice and inspiration I’ve wanted to share with authors for a while now. As both an independent and traditionally published author, I can tell you from experience that there are pros and cons to both routes. Ultimately, the best thing about self-publishing is the ability to retain control over all aspects of your own book, and to make more money per sale doing so.

      Numerous other successful authors have joined me to contribute their knowledge and tips on how they’ve achieved their goals through self-publishing. We’ve got specific suggestions, Do’s and Don’ts, and so much energy and excitement for this new world of publishing that by the time you finish reading, you’ll be ready to take the steps to put your manuscript out into the world as a published book.

      I’m not against traditional publishing. I consider myself a business woman as well as an author. My business is the business of being Shoshanna Evers. That involves much more than just writing books. More than half of my work day is spent not writing, but in publishing or promotion-related endeavors. When I heard that I could get 70% royalties based on list price if I published a book myself instead of going through one of my publishers, I made a business decision: It was time to dip my toes in the self-publishing waters. And wow, the water feels great!

      We start with USA Today Bestseller Kallypso Masters’s inspiring journey of how she quit her part-time day job making thirty grand a year (including benefits) and went on to net well over six figures as a debut indie author. She’s very pro-indie, to the point that she thinks getting an agent and accepting a traditional book deal that includes her digital rights is like flushing money down the toilet.

      I can see where she’s coming from—after running the numbers before accepting a six-book deal with a large traditional publisher, I felt I could make more money on my own, since as JA Konrath says, 70% royalties forever is worth more than 14.9% royalties, and forever is a long time—but I wanted to try something different to see how it went. Point being, I went into it with open eyes. Whatever you do, go into a project with your eyes open and know what you’re gaining and what you’re losing by taking a certain route. Most important to me in any contract is that I am still able to self-publish if I sign it.

      Author Gia Blue hit number twenty three on the overall Amazon Kindle Bestsellers list with a short erotic story and continues to self-pub what she calls her smut since she feels publishers won’t touch it but…readers love it.

      New York Times and USA Today Bestseller H.P. Mallory talks about the importance of great cover art and how to make the most of your cover to sell your books, and build your brand.

      Then, author Cara Bristol interviewed me about the business of writing. In the interview I give candid answers about how I went from completely unknown (in fact, Shoshanna Evers did not exist at all, since it’s my pen name) to making a living as a full-time author. It includes my tips on when—or if—to find an agent and go the traditional publishing route, or whether self-publishing is the best choice for you.

      Liz Matis’s book spent almost two years in editor limbo before she pulled the plug and decided to go it alone. She also talks about how she put her self-published book out as an ebook, a print book using print-on-demand, and an audio book—all with a zero to low start-up costs.

      Having a high quality product that’s well written, well edited, well formatted, and has a great cover are all an important part of respecting our readers, something Katriena Knights (who also writes as Elizabeth Jewell and KC Myers) discusses in her essay.

      Amazon Bestselling author Heather Thurmeier gives us her top ten list of tips for successful self-publishing, plus a bonus tip. She doesn’t gloss over the hard work involved or the fact that your book-baby might not sell as well as you hoped. Then again, it might…

      New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Jennifer Probst found a place for her story about a rescue dog by self-publishing it, and now writes a check each month with part of the book proceeds to the animal shelter where she volunteers. She found a wonderful way to contribute to charity with the gift that keeps on giving—royalties!

      New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Skye Warren did an experiment. She put two novellas up for sale and told no one to see what would happen. Her experiment led to some fascinating insights on self-publishing, including the importance of discoverability and word-of-mouth in the absence of marketing.

      Price points are an important facet of self-publishing, since we have the ability to be nimble with our pricing and make adjustments as needed. We can try different things to see how our books sell best and what makes the most money. I’ve found that when I price my books higher, I get less sales (and therefore a lower ranking on lists) but I make more money. My bestselling short story Overheated, however, is only 99 cents simply because it’s too short to make it cost more, in my opinion. It outsells my other books. Jackie Barbarosa discusses the pros and cons of the 99 cent price point and whether that should be part of your marketing strategy.

      Donna McDonald kept getting rejections from traditional publishers who said her books were wonderful but there was no market for an older heroine. She proved them all wrong by self-publishing and now makes a living off of her self-pub income.

      I interviewed USA Today Bestseller Debra Holland, and she explains how good reviews and making category bestseller lists on Amazon made her sales go through the roof. She sold over 120,000 books in her first fourteen months as a debut author.

      Then David Kazzie, Amazon Bestseller and creator of the viral YouTube hit So You Want to Write a Novel talks about how putting his book up for free brought life to lagging sales.

      I’ve also included Valerie Bowman’s Twitter primer for authors, which includes information on how to use hashtags and Triberr to maximize your follower reach. Being on Twitter is a great way to get connected to the publishing community and connect with readers.

      Author K. Rowe gives her tips on marketing using free promo, including the importance of making it easy for readers to discover and get to your books via links.

      So what happens if you put out a great book and it’s not selling? When Heather Hiestand, (who also writes as Anh Leod) had lagging sales on one of her indie books, she took it to a review website loop and asked for honest opinions on why it wasn’t selling. She changed her cover, blurb, and sale price to increase sales. One of the biggest benefits of self-publishing a book is that we can change things that don’t work until they do work.

      The last article in this book is my essay Getting Published, which breaks down all the publishing terms, what they mean, how to format your manuscript, how to write a query letter, and how to decide if you want to pursue traditional publishing, self-publishing, or as I have done, both. For this updated 2014 version, I’m thrilled to be able to add New York Times and USA Today bestselling author to my bio, as well, thanks to the self-published box set MAKE ME: Twelve Tales of Dark Desire.

      If you’re reading this introduction as an excerpt or sample pages, please know that you can download the book for free at www.SelfPubBookCovers.com. We want you to be successful. This is how we do it, and how you can too.

      Ready?

      How I Make $20,000 or More a Month with my Self-Published Books

      by Kallypso Masters

      Woo-hoo! Looks like it's gonna be another $1,000+ day! I love being a self-published author! I e-mailed that to

      Enjoying the preview?
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